70 ;:..: :i I&.(', : 'Ò... > ,, , :, :, :' .,'" " .. ' ' , \ 1 , ;,:. _ , fI; 1!:J' ' " , 'F l , . '"" " 4$ i l' 'f. : :> ... .. \919_ .. ..... " v. S': '? : .\\. " " '\? ' , \\: "':",' "\> <\.Q ð , " . '"" ,...} '<tt " i },\ ': : ,-çP :t! ",,) , ' ì tt i :\ , b '''; 'i 11 f l\ \ " ," ... , \0.1' \: \ ..... t \...3... , \.\, \ :\ t: ì ) )< ,, ; ii; II' , ' d r '1: ::; :, 1 lì ' ì :': t l' I 1 t ' ; ;' -: t " I . 14, ;\ > ; t f: 1 þ, i{ , , I t 1 " (': :.T f :; ..: , ìi , 1'1 J ; I J tì , ì " "j f , ' , , ;n l1 " ,(I '" 1"1 Y ,{ 'ì (' ì ð ,/ , t':1 ,1 / I ì , ,', ,,1 ,> "ì t ,;;;/ .. ';; \ ! ", '" , , !' ;; \ \ l .. ", , 1: 1. ;, t ;' " .. \\ '., .:. '- " , \, ..( :: ' f r 1', ì ' . .. , , , " .,( \ ' :;:.\ ; ' ,,:,,\ \' \ t- ,; 1 ,:",;r ON WALL STREET THERE ARE VERY FEW INVESTMENTS NO ONE IS AFRAID OF CROSS@ SINCE 1846 A gift of obvious fiscal intelligence 1 OK and 14K gold filled Lifetime mechanical guarantee Suggested prices from $24 THE SPOR.TING SCENE FORZA, IT ALIA! Iii ! I I, :', I : " II l. T HE quintessential Roman atti- tude toward public events is skepticism. At thIS year's run- ning of the Italian Derby, at Le Capannelle, Rome's thoroughbred race track, I could find no one who thought that any of the native horses in the race had a chance to win. The prevailing outlook was best expressed by a ruddy-faced railbird I encoun- tered soon after entering the grounds. "One thing is certain," he declared, in a voice like a cracked tuba. "When the foreigners are here, the Italians are always betrayed." Though the tuba may have been sounding a historical truth, his atti- tude in the particular circumstances seemed unfounded to me. There were only three foreign colts among the eleven three-year-old thoroughbreds entered in this edition, the hundredth running of the Derby-which this year was held the day after our own Kentucky Derby-and none of them had outstanding credentials. The likeliest of the three was a French horse, Tintern Abbey, who had recently won a couple of races against mediocre company at ,t Saint-Cloud; he was trained by Franç ois Boutin, a veteran of the French and Italian rac- ing scene, who had won this race three times in recent years. The two other invaders, High Cannon and Brogan, both from England, seemed to have no cre- dentials at all. They had won one race each at small provincial courses- Thirsk and Bath, respectively. Bro- gan, though, was trained by Ian Balding, who also trains the racing stable of the Queen of England-admittedly an in- timidating factor in Italian racing cir- cles. "They wouldn't spend all this money, would they, only to make an appearance here?" was the way a young Roman standing next to me at the paddock railing put it before the first race. "The English are not cre- tins when it comes to horses." This acid diffidence regarding Brit- ish horseflesh is understandable. The sport of thoroughbred horse racing is, ...- I I > I \ \ ' \ , t"'""h I\ " after all, an English invention, and all derbies everywhere take their name from Edward Smith Stanley, twelfth Ear] of Derby, who staged the first one, at Epsom Downs in 1780. The formula-pitting the season's best three-year-olds against each other in the spring over a classic distance of ground-has proved so successful that it has been imitated everywhere the sport flourishes; there are now over a hundred derbies worldwide. Romans, of course, have been betting on horses at least since the chariot races in the Circus Maximus, but in matters in- volving the modern thoroughbred the Anglo-Saxons have set all the stan- dards and imperiously laid down all the rules. F or a long time, they also won most of the international races. This proba- bly accounts for the fact that until recently the Italians limited entry in their own derby to homebreds-a way, per haps, of keeping local interest up and the prize money in casa. Then, in 1981, the Italian Jockey Club, seeking to increase the prestige of the race, threw it open to anyone with a purebred hopeful in his stall. To no one's sur- prise, the English cap- tured the last two re- newals-in 1981, with Glint of Gold, and in 1982, with Old Coun- try-which led some I talian owners and trainers to clamor for the closing of the fron- tiers. Luckily for in- ternational pubbliche relazioni, the outcry went unheeded. "Horse racing is an exquisite expression of competi- tion, and so it must remain," an official of the Jockey Club recently declared in a newspaper interview, pointing out quite accurately that no one could take seriously a derby won by a second-rate horse. (Garrido, the last Italian win- ner, had gone on to cover himself with mediocrity. ) And yet, over the years, Italy has prod uced some fine animals, including the undefeated N earco, who in 1938 won both the Italian Derby and the Grand Prix de Paris and went on to become a top sire in England (of all places); I J . II I j ' b I I " I flill a -= \ - \"-